Ede, Andrew. "A Most Damnable Invention: Dynamite, Nitrates, and the Making of the Modern World.(Book review)." The Historian. Phi Alpha Theta, History Honor Society, Inc. 2007. Retrieved March 19, 2018 from HighBeam Research: https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-168662919.html

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A Most Damnable Invention: Dynamite, Nitrates, and the Making of the Modern World.(Book review)

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A Most Damnable Invention: Dynamite, Nitrates, and the Making of the Modern World. By Stephen R. Bown. (New York, N.Y.: Thomas Dunne Books, 2005. Pp. xiv, 272. $23.95.)

An explosion has a certain finality to it. When the dust and smoke clears, the building is destroyed, the tunnel is dug, the coal is ready to collect, or the enemy is killed. What Stephen R. Bown does in this entertaining book is reveal the long historical road and complex infrastructure that led to the emphatic exclamation mark of modern explosives. Starting with black powder in China and moving to the era of high explosives brought to us by Alfred Nobel and Fritz Haber, the author looks at how explosives have shaped history. …

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